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ENV330
Essay #3
Compose a 300
–
word
(
minimum) essay on the topic below. Essays must be double
–
spaced
and use APA
–
style in
–
text citations to reference ideas or quotes that are not your own. You
must include a separate bibliography.
What is Wilderness? Why is it so importa
nt and what can be done to protect it? Is there
any controversy in the United States about this? What is your opinion? What is the
nearest wild place near where you live? Describe it.
(
Mississippi)
You should cite and quote from assigned readings, AVP’s, videos, and m
odule activities to
support the ideas in your essay.
ENV330 Essay #3
Compose a 300
–
word (minimum) essay on the topic below. Essays must be double
–
spaced
and use APA
–
style in
–
text citations to reference ideas or quotes that are not your own. You
must include a separate bibliography.
What is Wilderness? Why is it so importa
nt and what can be done to protect it? Is there
any controversy in the United States about this? What is your opinion? What is the
nearest wild place near where you live? Describe it.
(
Mississippi)
You should cite and quote from assigned readings, AVP’s, videos, and m
odule activities to
support the ideas in your essay.
ENV330 Essay #3
Compose a 300-word (minimum) essay on the topic below. Essays must be double-spaced
and use APA-style in-text citations to reference ideas or quotes that are not your own. You
must include a separate bibliography.
What is Wilderness? Why is it so important and what can be done to protect it? Is there
any controversy in the United States about this? What is your opinion? What is the
nearest wild place near where you live? Describe it.( Mississippi)
You should cite and quote from assigned readings, AVP’s, videos, and module activities to
support the ideas in your essay.
10.4b
Wilderness
A
reas
One way to protect existing wildlands from human exploitation is to
designate them as
wilderness
—
areas essentially undisturbed by humans
that are protected by federal law from harmful human activities (
Figure
10.23
). For example, forestry, road and trail development, mining, and
building construction are not allowed. Theo
dore Roosevelt (see
Figure
1.14
), the first U.S. president to set aside protected areas, summarized his
thoughts on what to do with wilderness: “Leave it as it is. You cannot
improve it.”
Figure 10.23
D
iablo Lake lies in a wil
derness area of North
C
ascades National Park in the U.S.
state of Washington.
tusharkoley/
Shutterstock.com
Most developers and resource extractors oppose establishing protected
wilderness areas because they contain resources that could provide short
–
term economic benefits.
E
cologists and conservation biologists take a
longer view. To them, wilderness areas are
protected islands of
biodiversity and ecosystem services needed to support life and human
economies both now and in the future and to serve as centers for future evolution in response to changes in environmental conditions.
In 1964, the U.S. Congress passed the Wilderness Act, which allowed the government to protect undeveloped tracts of U.S. public land from development as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System (
Figure 10.23
). The country’s area of protected wilderness grew nearly 12-fold between 1964 and 2015. Even so, less than 5% of all U.S. land is protected as wilderness—more than 54% of it in Alaska. Only about 2% of the land of the lower 48 states is protected as wilderness, most of it in the West.
2%
Percentage of land protected as wilderness in the lower 48 U.S. states
As the human population and its ecological footprint expand, it will be increasingly difficult and expensive to protect existing wilderness areas and to establish new ones. In addition, climate change is projected to threaten the biodiversity and composition of many existing wilderness areas.
10.4cParks and Other Nature Reserves
According to the IUCN, there are more than 6,500 major national parks located in more than 120 countries (see chapter-opening
photo
). However, most of these parks are too small to sustain many large animal species. In addition, many of them are “paper parks” that receive little protection, especially in less-developed countries.
Many parks also suffer from invasions by harmful nonnative species that can outcompete and reduce the populations of native species. Some national parks are so popular that large numbers of visitors are degrading the natural features that make them attractive (see the
Case Study
that follows).
Case Study
Stresses on U.S. Public Parks
The U.S. National Park System, established in 1912, includes 59 major national parks, sometimes called the country’s crown jewels, that are owned jointly by all U.S. citizens (see chapter-opening
photo). The U.S. National Park System also has 358 monuments, recreational areas, battlefields, historic sites, and other sites. States, counties, and cities also operate public parks.
In 1872, Congress set aside public land for Yellowstone National Park—the world’s first national park. Historian, conservationist, and writer Wallace Stegner called it “the best idea America ever had.”
Popularity threatens many parks.
B
etween 1960 and 2017, the number of recreational visitors to U.S. national parks more than tripled, reaching about 331 million. In 2017, the three most visited places in the National Park System are the Blue Ridge Parkway, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
In some U.S. parks and other public lands, dirt bikes, dune buggies, jet skis, snowmobiles, and other off-road vehicles destroy or damage vegetation, disturb wildlife, and degrade the park experience for many visitors. Some visitors expect parks to have grocery stores, laundries, bars, and other such conveniences. Cell phone towers now degrade the pristine nature of some parks.
A number of parks also suffer damage from the migration or deliberate introduction of nonnative species. European wild boars (see
Figure 9.11
), imported into the state of North Carolina in 1912 for hunting, threaten vegetation in parts of the popular Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Nonnative mountain goats in Washington State’s Olympic National Park trample and destroy the root systems of native vegetation and accelerate soil erosion.
Native species—some of them threatened or endangered—are killed in, or illegally removed from, almost half of all U.S. national parks. However, the endangered gray wolf was successfully reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park after a 50-year absence (
Science Focus 10.3
).
Many U.S. national parks have become threatened islands of biodiversity surrounded by commercial development. The parks’ wildlife and recreational value are threatened by nearby activities such as mining, logging, livestock grazing, coal-fired power plants, and urban development. The National Park Service reports that air pollution, mainly caused by coal-fired power plants and dense vehicle traffic, impairs scenic views more than 90% of the time in many U.S. national parks. In 2018, scientists at Colorado State University found high noise levels from road traffic, air traffic, and nearby mining, drilling, and logging in more than 60% of the 492 areas they studied. Such noise pollution can diminish the park experience for many visitors.
The National Park Service estimated that in 2018, the national parks had at least an $11.6 billion backlog for long overdue maintenance and repairs to trails, buildings, and other park facilities. Some analysts say that some of the funds needed for such purposes could come from private concessionaires who provide campgrounds, restaurants, hotels, and other services for park visitors. They pay the government franchise fees averaging only about 6–7% of their gross receipts, and many large concessionaires with long-term contracts pay as little as 0.75%. Analysts say these percentages could reasonably be increased to around 20%.
Since the 1930s, there have been efforts to sell U.S. National Parks and other public lands to private owners and developers. These pressures are increasing, as discussed in
Chapter 25
.
Parks in less-developed countries have the greatest biodiversity of all the world’s parks, but only about 1% of these parklands are protected. Local people in many of these countries enter the parks illegally in search of wood, game animals, and other natural products that they need for their daily survival. Loggers and miners also operate illegally in many of these parks, as do wildlife poachers who kill animals to obtain and sell items such as rhino horns, elephant tusks, and furs. Park services in most of the less-developed countries have too little money and too few personnel to fight these invasions, either by force or through education.
Science Focus 10.3
Reintroducing the Gray Wolf to Yellowstone National Park
In the 1800s, at least 3
50,000
gray wolves (
Figure 10.B
) roamed over 75% of America’s lower 48 states—especially in the West. The wolves preyed on bison, elk, caribou, and deer. Between 1850 and 1900, most of them were shot, trapped, or poisoned by ranchers, hunters, and government employees. This drove the gray wolf to near extinction in the lower 48 states.
Figure 10.B
After becoming almost extinct in much of the western United States, the gray wolf was listed and protected as an endangered species in 1974.
Volodymyr Burdiak/ Shutterstock.com
Ecologists recognize the important role that this keystone predator species once played in the Yellowstone National Park region. The wolves culled herds of bison, elk, moose, and mule deer, and kept down coyote populations. By leaving some of their kills partially uneaten, they provided meat for scavengers such as ravens, bald eagles, ermines, grizzly bears, and foxes.
When the number of gray wolves declined, herds of plant-browsing elk, moose, and mule deer expanded and over browsed the willow and aspen trees growing near streams and rivers. This led to increased soil erosion and declining populations of other wildlife species such as beaver, which eat willow and aspen. This in turn affected species that depend on wetlands created by dam-building beavers.
In 1974, the gray wolf was listed as an endangered species in the lower 48 states. However, in 2019, the Interior Department proposed removing endangered species protection for the gray wolf in the lower 48 states because of an increase in its population to more than 5,000.
In 1987, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposed reintroducing gray wolves into Yellowstone National Park to try to help stabilize the ecosystem. The proposal brought angry protests from ranchers who feared the wolves would leave the park and attack large numbers of their cattle and sheep and from hunters who feared the wolves would kill too many big-game animals. Mining and logging companies objected, fearing that the government would halt their operations on wolf-populated federal lands.
In 1996, USFWS officials captured 41 gray wolves in Canada and northwest Montana and relocated them in Yellowstone National Park. Scientists estimate that the long-term carrying capacity of the park is 110 to 150 gray wolves. In December 2018, the park had 104 wolves in 11 packs.
The reintroduction of this keystone species has turned the park into a living ecological laboratory. Wildlife ecologist Robert Crabtree and other scientists have been using radio collars to track some of the wolves and study the ecological effects of reintroducing the wolves. Their research indicates that the return of this keystone predator has decreased populations of elk, the wolves’ primary food source. The leftovers of elk killed by wolves have also been an important food source for scavengers such as bald eagles and ravens.
The wolves’ presence, with a projected decline in elk numbers, was supposed to promote the regrowth of young aspen trees that elk feed on and had depleted. However, a study led by U.S. Geological Survey scientist Matthew Kauffman indicated that the aspen were not recovering despite a 60% decline in elk numbers. Declining populations of elk were also supposed to allow for the return of willow trees along streams. Research indicates that willows have only partly recovered.
The wolves have cut in half the Yellowstone population of coyotes—the top predators in the absence of wolves. This has reduced coyote attacks on cattle from area ranches and has led to larger populations of small animals such as ground squirrels, mice, and gophers, which are hunted by coyotes, eagles, and hawks.
Overall, this experiment has had some important ecological benefits for the Yellowstone ecosystem, but more research is needed. The focus has been on the gray wolf, but other factors such as drought and the rise of populations of bears and cougars may play a role in the observed ecological changes and need to be examined. Some scientists hypothesize that the long-term absence of wolves led to a number of changes in plant and animal numbers and diversity that are difficult to reverse
The wolf reintroduction has also produced economic benefits for the region. One of the main attractions of the park for many visitors is the hope of spotting wolves chasing their prey across its vast meadows.
1. If the gray wolf population in the park were to reach its estimated carrying capacity of 110 to 150 wolves, would you support a program to kill wolves to maintain this population level? Why or why not? Can you think of other alternatives?
2. 10.4dDesigning and Managing Nature Reserves
3. In establishing nature reserves, the size and design of the reserve is important. Research by Thomas E. Lovejoy (
Chapter 3
, Individuals Matter) and other scientists indicates that large nature reserves typically sustain more species and provide greater habitat diversity than do small reserves. Research also indicates that in some areas, several well-placed medium-size reserves may better protect a variety of habitats and sustain more biodiversity than a single large reserve can.
4. Establishing protected habitat corridors between isolated reserves can benefit more species and allow migration by vertebrates that need large ranges. Corridors also allow some species to move to areas that are more favorable if climate change alters their existing areas.
5. On the other hand, corridors can threaten isolated populations by allowing movement of fire, disease, and pest and invasive species between reserves. They can also increase exposure of migrating species to natural predators, human hunters, and pollution. Some research suggests that the benefits of corridors outweigh their potential harmful effects, especially as the climate changes.
6.
Conservation biologists call for using the buffer zone concept, whenever possible, to design and manage nature reserves. Establishing a buffer zone means strictly protecting an inner core of a reserve, usually by establishing one or more buffer zones in which local people can extract resources sustainably without harming the inner core (see the Case Study that follows). By 2018, the United Nations had used this concept to create a global network of 686 biosphere reserves in 122 countries. However, most biosphere reserves fall short of these design ideals and receive too little funding for their protection and management.
7.
Case Study
8. Identifying and Protecting Biodiversity in Costa Rica
9. For several decades, Costa Rica (
Core Case Study
) has been using government and private research agencies to identify the plants and animals that make it one of the world’s most biologically diverse countries (
Figure 10.24
). The government consolidated the country’s parks and reserves into several large conservation areas, or megareserves, with the goal of protecting and sustaining 80% of the country’s biodiversity (
Figure 10.25
).
10. Figure 10.24
11. This scarlet macaw parrot is one of the more than half a million species found in Costa Rica.
12.
13.
Vladimir Melnik/ Shutterstock.com
14. Figure 10.25
15. Solutions: Costa Rica has created several megareserves. Green areas are protected natural parklands and yellow areas are the surrounding buffer zones.
16.
17.
Each reserve contains a protected inner core surrounded by two buffer zones that local and indigenous people can use for sustainable logging, crop farming, cattle grazing, hunting, fishing, and ecotourism. Instead of shutting local people out of reserve areas, this approach enlists local people as partners in protecting a reserve from activities such as illegal logging and poaching. It is an application of the biodiversity and win-win principles of sustainability.
18. In addition to its ecological benefits, this strategy has paid off financially. Today, Costa Rica’s largest source of income is its $2.9-billion-a-year travel and tourism industry, almost two-thirds of which involves ecotourism.
There are potential threats to Costa Rica’s conservation efforts. One is the clearing of forests to grow pineapples in plantations for export to China. Ecotourism helps to fund parks and conservation efforts and reduces exploitation of conservation areas by providing income for local people in visited areas, but excessive numbers of ecotourists can degrade sensitive ar0.4eSustaining Terrestrial Biodiversity: An Ecosystem Approach
Most wildlife biologists and conservationists believe that the best way to keep from hastening the extinction of wild species through human activities is to protect threatened habitats and ecosystem services. This ecosystems approach would generally employ the following five-point plan:
1. Map the world’s terrestrial ecosystems and create an inventory of the species contained in each of them, along with the ecosystem services they provide.
2. Identify terrestrial ecosystems that are resilient and can recover if not overwhelmed by harmful human activities, along with ecosystems that are fragile and need protection.
3. Protect the most endangered terrestrial ecosystems and species, with emphasis on protecting plant biodiversity and ecosystem services.
4. Restore as many degraded ecosystems as possible.
5. Make development biodiversity-friendly by providing significant financial incentives (such as tax breaks and subsidies) and technical help to private landowners who agree to help protect endangered ecosystems.
0.4fProtect Biodiversity Hotspots and Ecosystem Services
The ecosystem approach calls for identifying and taking emergency action to protect the earth’s
biodiversity hotspots
. They are areas rich in highly endangered species found nowhere else and threatened by human activities. These areas have suffered serious ecological disruption, mainly due to rapid population growth and the resulting pressure on natural resources and ecosystem services.
Figure 10.26
shows 34 terrestrial biodiversity hotspots biologists have identified. According to the IUCN, these areas cover only about 2% of the earth’s land surface, but are home for the majority of the world’s endangered species, as well as for 1.2 billion people.
Figure 10.26
Endangered natural capital: Biologists have identified these 34 biodiversity hotspots. Compare this map with the global map of the human ecological footprint, shown in
Figure 1.9
.
Critical Thinking:
1. Why do you think so many hotspots are located near coastal areas?
(Compiled by the authors using data from the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science at Conservation International.)
This approach can conserve nearly half of the world’s terrestrial plant and animal species by preserving only about 2.3% of the earth’s land surface. However, only 5% of the total area of these hotspots is truly protected with government funding and law enforcement, as described in the Case Study that follows.
Case Study
Madagascar: An Endangered Biodiversity Hotspot
Madagascar, the world’s fourth largest island, lies in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa. Most of its numerous species have evolved in near isolation from mainland Africa and all other land areas for at least 40 million years. As a result, roughly 90% of the more than 200,000 plant and animal species (
Figure 10.27
) found in this Texas-size biodiversity hotspot are found nowhere else on the earth.
Figure 10.27
Madagascar is the only home for six of the world’s eight baobab tree species (left), old-growth trees that are disappearing. This tree survives the desert-like conditions on part of the island by storing water in its large bottle-shaped trunk. The island is also the only home of more than 70 species of lemurs, including the threatened Verreaux’s sifaka, or dancing lemur (right).
Left: David Thyberg/ Shutterstock.com. Right: Richlindie/ Dreamstime.com.
Many of Madagascar’s plant and animal species are among the world’s most endangered, primarily because of habitat loss. People have cut down or burned more than 90% of Madagascar’s original forests to get firewood and lumber and to make way for small farms, large rice plantations, and cattle grazing.
Only about 17% of the island’s original vegetation remains, which means most of its topsoil is exposed. Hence, Madagascar is one of the world’s most eroded countries. Huge quantities of its topsoil have run off its hills, flowing as sediment in its rivers and emptying into its coastal waters. This explains why Madagascar is one of the world’s most threatened biodiversity hotspots.
Since 1984, the government, conservation organizations, and scientists worldwide have mounted efforts to slow the country’s rapid loss of biodiversity. Such efforts are hampered by Madagascar’s rapid population growth. Between 1994 and 2018, its population grew from 12 million to 26 million and is projected to grow to 54 million by 2050. The country is also very poor, with 90% of its population struggling to survive on the equivalent of less than $2.25 per day. This puts pressure on its dwindling forest resources.
Despite the efforts to preserve Madagascar’s biodiversity, less than 3% of its land area is officially protected. To reduce the rapid losses of biodiversity, the country will need to slow its population growth drastically and teach many of its people how to make a living from reforestation, ecotourism, and more sustainable uses of its forests, wildlife, and soil resources.
6.
7. 10.4gProtecting Ecosystem Services
8. Another way to sustain the earth’s biodiversity is to identify and protect areas in which vital ecosystem services (see the orange boxed labels in
Figure 1.3
) are being impaired. Scientists call for identifying highly stressed areas with high poverty levels where most people are dependent on ecosystem services for survival. This ecosystem services approach recognizes that most of the world’s ecosystems are already dominated or influenced by human activities and that such pressures are increasing as the human population, urbanization, resource use, and the human ecological footprint all expand.
9. Proponents of this approach recognize that setting aside and protecting reserves and wilderness areas, especially highly endangered biodiversity hotspots and ecosystems, is vital. They also call for protecting the human communities that exist in these areas. Without addressing such issues as poverty, population growth, urbanization, and resource use, ecosystem services will continue to decline. Environmental scientist Gretchen Daily has developed tools to guide investments in restoring ecosystem services, in poor countries as well as more-developed countries (
Individuals Matter 10.2
).
10. Individuals Matter 10.2
12.
13. Courtesy of Gretchen Daily
14. Gretchen Daily, Professor of Environmental Science at Stanford University, is alarmed by the growing threats to natural capital. She is considered one of the world’s experts on natural capital and ecosystem services.
15. In 2006, Daily cofounded the Natural Capital Project with Stanford University, World Wildlife Fund, and The Nature Conservancy. It has three major goals. First, develop credible and practical methods for measuring the economic and other values of ecosystem services. Second, find ways to integrate these values into major decisions made by governments and businesses. Third, tailor and replicate models that work across world regions or industry sectors.
16. The group has developed a software tool called InVEST (for Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs). It helps users compare how different choices, such as where and how to develop or conserve land, can affect the ecosystem service benefits provided by forests or wetlands. It assigns long-term economic values to services such as flood control, water purification, and climate stability and projects how these services are likely to grow or shrink as a result of choices such as clear-cutting, selective logging, restoration, and preservation. This tool is being used in more than 185 countries, helping landowners and investors evaluate the effects of these and other factors in deciding how to use a piece of forested land. After heavy deforestation through the 1990s, China has invested over $100 billion in reforestation, for example, and is now reaping financial and well-being benefits of hydropower production efficiency, a more secure water supply, and flood control.
10.4hRestoring Damaged Ecosystems
Almost every natural place on the earth has been impacted to some degree by human activities, often in harmful ways. Much of the damage can be partially reversed through
ecological restoration
, the process of repairing damage to ecosystems caused by human activities. Examples include replanting forests (see the Case Study that follows), reintroducing keystone native species (Science Focus 10.3), removing harmful invasive species, freeing river flows by removing dams, and restoring grasslands, coral reefs, wetlands, and stream banks (
Figure 10.21
, right). This is an important way to expand our beneficial environmental impact.
Case Study
Ecological Restoration of a Tropical Dry Forest in Costa Rica
Costa Rica (Core Case Study) is the site of one of the world’s largest ecological restoration projects. In the lowlands of its Guanacaste National Park, a tropical dry forest was burned, degraded, and fragmented for conversion to cattle ranches and farms. Now it is being restored and reconnected to a rain forest on nearby mountain slopes.
Daniel Janzen, professor of conservation biology at the University of Pennsylvania and a leader in the field of restoration ecology, used his own MacArthur Foundation grant money to purchase the Guanacaste forestland for designation as a national park. He has also raised more than $10 million for restoring the park.
Janzen recognizes that ecological restoration and protection of the park will fail unless the people living in the surrounding area believe they will benefit from such efforts. His vision is to see that the nearly 40,000 people who live near the park play an essential role in the restoration of the forest.
In the park, local farmers are paid to remove nonnative species and to plant tree seeds and seedlings started in Janzen’s laboratory. Local grade school, high school, and university students and citizens’ groups study the park’s ecology during field trips. The park’s location near the Pan American Highway makes it an ideal area for ecotourism, which stimulates the local economy.
This project also serves as a training ground in tropical forest restoration for scientists from around the world. Research scientists working on the project give guest classroom lectures and lead field trips. Janzen believes that education, awareness, and involvement—not guards and fences—are the best ways to protect largely intact ecosystems from unsustainable use. This is an application of the biodiversity and win-win principles of sustainability.
By studying how natural ecosystems recover, scientists are learning how to employ and enhance ecological succession processes by using a variety of approaches, including the following four:
· Restoration: returning a degraded habitat or ecosystem to a condition as close as possible to its original one.
· Rehabilitation: turning a degraded ecosystem into a functional or useful ecosystem without trying to restore it to its original condition. Examples include removing pollutants from abandoned mining or industrial sites and replanting trees to reduce soil erosion in clear-cut forests.
· Replacement: replacing a degraded ecosystem with another type of ecosystem. For example, a degraded forest might be replaced by a productive pasture or tree plantation.
· Creating artificial ecosystems: for example, artificial wetlands have been created in some areas to help reduce flooding and to treat sewage.
Researchers have suggested the following four-step strategy for carrying out most forms of ecological restoration and rehabilitation.
1. Identify the causes of the degradation, such as pollution, farming, overgrazing, mining, or invasive species.
2. Stop the degradation by eliminating or sharply reducing these factors.
3.
Reintroduce keystone species to help restore natural ecological processes, as was done with gray wolves in the Yellowstone ecosystem (
Science Focus 10.3).
4. Protect the area from further degradation to allow natural recovery (
Figure 10.19
, right).
By following this general plan, conservationist and National Geographic Explorer Sean Gerrity is working with his 35-person team in the U.S. state of Montana to create American Prairie Reserve, the largest nature reserve in the continental United States, a refuge for people and wildlife preserved forever as a part of America’s heritage. Their goal is to restore the wildlife and ecosystem services that were common to this unique area of North America’s grasslands for more than 11,000 years.
10.4iSharing Ecosystems with Other Species
We dominate most of the world’s ecosystems, which is a cause of species extinction and loss of ecosystem services. Ecologist Michael L. Rosenzweig calls for us to share some of the spaces we dominate with other species—an approach he calls
reconciliation ecology
. It focuses on establishing and maintaining new habitats to conserve species diversity in places where people live, work, or play. This is a way for us to increase our beneficial environmental impact.
Learning from Nature
Researchers from the carpet manufacturer Interface examined a forest floor to get ideas for designing a carpet pattern. They decided to mimic the forest floor by creating a random, non-repeating design that became one of their best-selling lines of carpeting. It also saved the company money by allowing installers to cut waste dramatically, as the installations were not dependent on a repeating pattern.
By encouraging sustainable forms of ecotourism, people can protect local wildlife and ecosystems and provide economic resources for their communities. In the Central American country of Belize, for instance, conservation biologist Robert Horwich helped establish a local sanctuary for the black howler monkey. He convinced local farmers to set aside strips of forest to serve as habitats and corridors through which these monkeys can travel. The reserve, run by a local women’s cooperative, has attracted ecotourists and biologists. Local residents receive income for housing and guiding these visitors.
Without proper controls, ecotourism can lead to degradation of popular sites if they are overrun by visitors or are degraded by the construction of nearby hotels and other tourist facilities. However, when managed properly, ecotourism can be a useful form of reconciliation ecology.
Reconciliation ecology is also a way to protect vital ecosystem services. For example, some people are learning how to protect insect pollinators, such as butterflies and honeybees (see
Chapter 9
Core Case Study), which are vulnerable to pesticides and habitat loss. Neighborhoods and municipal governments are doing so by reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides on their lawns, fields, golf courses, and parks. People can also plant gardens of flowering plants as a source of food for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. According to honeybee experts, people trying to help bees in this way should avoid using glyphosate herbicides and plants that contain neonicotinoid insecticides.
People have also worked together to protect bluebirds within human-dominated habitats. In such areas, bluebird populations have declined because most of their nesting trees have been cut down. Specially designed boxes have provided artificial nesting places for bluebirds. Their widespread use has allowed populations of this species to grow.
These and many other examples of people working together on projects to restore degraded ecosystems are applications of the biodiversity and win-win principles of sustainability.
Figure 10.28
lists some ways in which you can help sustain and expand the earth’s terrestrial biodiversity.
Figure 10.28
Individuals matter: Ways to help sustain terrestrial biodiversity.
Critical Thinking:
1. Which two of these actions do you think are the most important ones to take? Why? Which of these things do you already do?
Protecting the earth’s vital biodiversity and increasing our beneficial environmental impact will not be implemented without bottom-up political pressure on elected officials from individual citizens and groups. It also will require cooperation among scientists, engineers, and key people in government and the private sector. Individuals also need to “vote with their wallets” by buying only products and services that do not harm terrestrial biodiversity.
Big Ideas
· The economic value of the ecosystem services provided by the world’s ecosystems is far greater than the value of raw materials obtained from those systems.
· We can manage forests, grasslands, and nature reserves more effectively by protecting more land and by preventing overuse and degradation of these areas and the renewable resources they contain.
· We can sustain terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystem services and increase our beneficial environmental impact by protecting severely threatened areas and ecosystem services, restoring damaged ecosystems, and sharing with other species much of the land that we dominate.
·
·
Eduardo Rivero/ Shutterstock.com
· In this chapter, you learned how human activities are destroying or degrading much of the earth’s terrestrial biodiversity. You learned the importance of preserving what remains of diverse and highly endangered biodiversity hotspots and of sustaining the earth’s ecosystem services. You also saw how to reduce this destruction and degradation by using the earth’s resources more sustainably and by employing restoration ecology and reconciliation ecology. The
Core Case Study introduced much of this by reporting on what Costa Rica is doing to protect and restore its precious biodiversity.
· Preserving terrestrial biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides involves applying the three scientific principles of sustainability. First, it means respecting biodiversity and understanding the value of sustaining it. In addition, if we rely less on fossil fuels and more on direct solar energy and its indirect forms, such as wind and flowing water, we will generate less pollution. We will also interfere less with chemical cycling and other forms of natural capital that sustain biodiversity and our own lives and economies.
· Applying the three additional principles of sustainability will also help preserve biodiversity. By placing economic value on ecosystem services, we would acknowledge their importance by helping implement full-cost pricing. Working together to find win-win solutions to problems of environmental degradation benefits the earth and its people. Our actions can be guided by an ethical responsibility to sustain biodiversity and ecosystem services for current and future generations.
Chapter Review
Critical Thinking
1. Why do you think Costa Rica (Core Case Study) has set aside a much larger percentage of its land for biodiversity conservation than the United States has? Should the United States reserve more of its land for this purpose? Explain.
2. If we fail to protect a much larger percentage of the world’s remaining old-growth forests and tropical rain forests, what are three harmful effects that this failure is likely to have on any children and grandchildren you eventually might have?
3. In the early 1990s, Miguel Sanchez, a subsistence farmer in Costa Rica, was offered $600,000 by a hotel developer for a piece of land that he and his family had been using sustainably for many years. An area under rapid development surrounded the land, which contained an old-growth rain forest and a black sand beach. Sanchez refused the offer. Explain how Sanchez’s decision was an application of the ethical principle of sustainability. What would you have done if you were Sanchez? Explain.
4. Halting the destruction and degradation of tropical rain forests is a key to preserving the world’s biodiversity and slowing global climate change. Since this will benefit the entire world during this and future generations, should the United States and the world’s other more-developed nations pay tropical, less-developed countries to preserve their remaining tropical forests, as Norway and the United Kingdom have done? Explain. Do you think that the long-term economic and ecological benefits of doing this would outweigh the short-term economic costs? Why or why not?
5. Are you in favor of establishing more wilderness areas in the United States (or in the country where you live)? Explain. What might be some disadvantages of doing this?
6. You are a defense attorney arguing in court for preserving an old-growth forest that developers want to clear for a suburban development. Give your three strongest arguments for preserving this ecosystem. How would you counter the argument that preserving the forest would harm the economy by causing a loss of jobs in the timber industry?
7. Do you support or oppose the U.S. 2003 Healthy Forests Restoration Act (Section 10.2)? Why or why not?
8. It would cost about $76 billion a year to sustain the earth’s terrestrial biodiversity. Do you think we should spend this money? How might a decision not to make this investment affect you and any children or grandchildren you might have?
Chapter Review
1. Pick an area near where you live or go to school that hosts a variety of plants and animals. It could be a yard, an abandoned lot, a park, a forest, or some part of your campus. Visit this area at least three times and make a survey of the plants and animals that you find there, including any trees, shrubs, groundcover plants, insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals. Also, take a small sample of the topsoil and find out what organisms are living there. (Be careful to get permission from whoever owns or manages the land before doing any digging.) Using guidebooks and other resources to help identify different species, record your findings, and categorize them into the general types of organisms listed above. Then do some research to find out about the ecosystem services that some or all of these organisms provide. Try to find and record five of these services. Finally, do some research to find a range of values that economists have assigned to these ecosystem services at the global level. Write a report summarizing your findings.
Chapter Review
The table below compares five countries in terms of rain forest area and losses. Study the table and then answer the questions that follow.
|
Country |
Area of Tropical Rain Forest (square kilometers) |
Area of Deforestation per Year (square kilometers) |
Annual Rate of Tropical Forest Loss |
| A |
1,800,000 |
50,000 | |
| B |
55,000 |
3,000 |
|
| C |
22,000 |
6,000 |
|
| D |
530,000 |
12,000 |
|
| E |
80,000 |
700 |
1. What is the annual rate of tropical rain forest loss, as a percentage of total forest area, in each of the five countries? Answer by filling in the blank column in the table.
2. What is the annual rate of tropical deforestation collectively in all of the countries represented in the table?
3. According to the table, and assuming the rates of deforestation remain constant, which country’s tropical rain forest will be destroyed first?
4. Assuming the rate of deforestation in country C remains constant, how many years will it take for all of its tropical rain forests to be destroyed?
5. Assuming that a hectare of tropical rain forest absorbs 0.85 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, what would be the total annual growth in the carbon footprint (carbon emitted but not absorbed by vegetation because of deforestation) in metric tons of carbon dioxide per year for each of the five countries in the table?
6.
7.
8. Below is where the book information came from Chapter 10
· 10.4b
Wilderness Areas
· 10.4c
Parks and Other Nature Reserves
· 10.4d
Designing and Managing Nature Reserves
· 10.4e
Sustaining Terrestrial Biodiversity: An Ecosystem Approach
· 10.4f
Protect Biodiversity Hotspots and Ecosystem Services
· 10.4g
Protecting Ecosystem Services
· 10.4h
Restoring Damaged Ecosystems
· 10.4i
Sharing Ecosystems with Other Species
· Tying It All Together
Sustaining Costa Rica’s Biodiversity
·
Chapter Review
·
Critical Thinking
·
Doing Environmental Science
·
Ecological Footprint Analysis
10.4b
Wilderness Areas
One way to protect existing wildlands from human exploitation is to
designate them as
wilderness
—
areas essentially undisturbed by humans
that are protected by federal law from harmful human activities (
Figure
10.23
). For example, forestry, road and trail development, mining, and
building construction are not allowed. Theo
dore Roosevelt (see
Figure
1.14
), the first U.S. president to set aside protected areas, summarized his
thoughts on what to do with wilderness: “Leave it as it is. You cannot
improve it.”
Figure
10.23
Diablo Lake lies in a wil
derness area of North Cascades National Park in the U.S.
state of Washington.
tusharkoley/
Shutterstock.com
Most developers and resource extractors oppose establishing protected
wilderness areas because they contain resources that could provide short
–
term economic benefits. Ecologists and conservation biologists take a
longer view. To them, wilderness areas are
protected islands of
biodiversity and ecosystem services needed to support life and human
10.4bWilderness Areas
One way to protect existing wildlands from human exploitation is to
designate them as wilderness—areas essentially undisturbed by humans
that are protected by federal law from harmful human activities (Figure
10.23). For example, forestry, road and trail development, mining, and
building construction are not allowed. Theodore Roosevelt (see Figure
1.14), the first U.S. president to set aside protected areas, summarized his
thoughts on what to do with wilderness: “Leave it as it is. You cannot
improve it.”
Figure 10.23
Diablo Lake lies in a wilderness area of North Cascades National Park in the U.S.
state of Washington.
tusharkoley/ Shutterstock.com
Most developers and resource extractors oppose establishing protected
wilderness areas because they contain resources that could provide short-
term economic benefits. Ecologists and conservation biologists take a
longer view. To them, wilderness areas are protected islands of
biodiversity and ecosystem services needed to support life and human
Livingin the Environment (MindTap Course List)
20th Edition
ISBN-13: 978-0357142202, ISBN-10: 0170291502
